According to Da Meltz, Brian "Spanky" Hendricks' debut Velocity name was not Dynamite, but The Diamond Back, after the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, Meltzer seems pretty sure that his defeat of Funaki will air, and he's also saying that Spanky's gimmick may be that he changes his name each week to fit the local sports franchise. Two thing strike me:

a)This is an absolutely genius way of garnering insta-pops; it's basically stripped down the cheap pop to it's barest form and said "Here it is-we know you'll cheer for it so there's no point in hiding it".

b)It's not an incredibly limiting gimmick, ie. he could turn heel by changing his name to the OPPOSING franchise each week, or he could simply remove the mask and go serious.

Wasn't this idea thought up by somebody at Wienerville? I distinctly remember someone coming up with it.Stand up and take credit, rogue! Or perhaps it was a WWE plant, bouncing gimmick ideas off the smarks.

"This is Hard Harry reminding you to eat your cereal with a fork and do your homework in the dark." - Christian Slater, Pump Up the Volume

If Spanky's gimmick changes from show to show, then what the hell do we call him from week to week? Granted we'll all know its the same guy, but doesn't this sort of mean that he and continuity will have a hard time co-existing? If after the Diamond Back/Funaki match, Crash had decided to run in and paste Diamond Back with a chair, do we have to wait until the next time he is in AZ for DB to get his revenge? Probably not, as based on wherever they are next week (lets say, NY), then that week's persona would face Crash (lets say, the Yankee). I get that much, but ultimately, what do you call him??? Diamond Back/Yankee/Spanky/Local-Sports-Team-Cheap-Heat-Gimmick-Man???

Originally posted by Parts UnknownWasn't this idea thought up by somebody at Wienerville? I distinctly remember someone coming up with it.Stand up and take credit, rogue! Or perhaps it was a WWE plant, bouncing gimmick ideas off the smarks.

*Stands Up Proud* My Smackdown thoughts for July 5 "Jericho v. Cena - I thought the match fine, great mid-card stuff. Ya agree last week was a better Cena match. Uh oh I'm I saying that Cena had his worse WWE TV match with Jericho, watch Y2J freak!!... A good gimmick for Cena is every town he's in, he claims it's his hometown to get the hometown pop (norman smiley kinda thing, ahh Smiley we hardly knew you)Click Here for proof

They also used my Trish being Lilians "special" friend during SummerSlam by helping her out. *sigh* they could have done a lot more with that. But I guess it's a slow burn.

I feel so powerful, I feel so influential, Go figure I'm one of the top influential people on the internet. I must only use this influence for evil purposes.

The other difficulty with the concept is that in the arena you (I, at least) rarely can understand what the announcer is calling somebody. I actually thought I did hear "Diamondback", but apparently other people heard "Dynamite" or other things. He in fact did not get a particular hometown (homestate in this case) pop, 'cause nobody really heard it. And if it doesn't work for the locals, it sort of loses any impact. (I don't even know where the hell Mohegan Sun is, much less de-reference an allusion to whatever the nearest sports franchise is.)

If that were the intent, it would be helpful to at least come up with something in the team colours (ala pre-rapper Cena).

I supposed we'd just have to call him "Unknown Baby Wrestler in Chopped Up Ski Mask & Pajama Bottoms".

Mohegan Sun is an Indian Reservation Casino in Uncasville, CT. It is on the Eastern side, so I'd expect them to use the Boston/New England teams there.

I want to ask if the gimmick won't get old quickly, since with Norman Smiley, the people at home might not be paying all that much attention to where he's from each week, but here, it would be blatantly obvious he kept changing team affiliation, and I can't help but wonder if that wouldn't backfire on him after too long.